Former South African speedster Dale Steyn said that Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) batter Rahul Tripathi could earn a maiden India call up after seeing his stunning shows in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL). However, the SRH’s fast-bowling coach has also shared that their pacers have been doing really well, especially Jammu and Kashmir pacer Umran Malik, who took the limelight away from others with his 150-plus kmph speed as well.
Tripathi, meanwhile, has amassed 228 runs which came at an average of 45.60 and a strike rate of 174.04 as well. And, he has been quite consistent in the middle-order. In a recent chat with Sportskeeda recently, Dale Steyn has shown his surprise that Tripathi hasn’t played for India yet.
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He said, “I certainly believe that Rahul has a serious chance of making it to India’s T20I team. The IPL is a platform that allows players to perform so well that the Indian national team selects players from that pool. It’s strange to see that he hasn’t got an opportunity in the Indian team so far.”
However, Rahul Tripathi had made his IPL debut way back in 2017 when he played for the now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiant. He amassed 391 runs, including two fifties, in 14 innings at 27.92 and a strike rate of 146.44 as well. In the next year, Rajasthan Royals (RR) bought him for ₹3.4 crore at the mega auction, but he hardly got opportunities there. And then, Kolkata Knight Riders bought him where he smashed 627 runs from 28 matches between 2020 and 2021 and helped the team to reach their third IPL final too as well. Later, KKR didn’t retain him ahead of the 2022 IPL season and SRH bought him for a whopping sum of ₹8.5 crore as well. And, he has been doing quite well too.
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Dale Steyn again said: “Given that the position he bats at [no. 3] is occupied by Virat Kohli in the Indian team, it’s going to be difficult to get that spot. But the way he’s currently playing and the way he has played in the past, he has certainly shown maturity. He’s putting his hand up and bashing the door down as hard as he can.”
